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Got back to good ol’ Sweden and took care of business for a few days before leaving for the Canary Islands. Chris and Shara left the day after Chris arrived from America while Björn and I left a couple of days later. We travelled through Amsterdam, again, and since I am such a nerd with my flying points I am nowadays an Elite Plus Gold member of the Flying Blue team. Therefore one has complete access to all the Air France and KLM Crown lounges, plus I can bring a friend which, of course, was Björn.

The both of us enjoyed the Dutch coffee, other drinks and food before heading for Madrid. In the Spanish capitol we heard from Chris that his bass got lost several days before. On our way to the aircraft we happened to drive by a trolley where I saw two of my guitars and felt relieved they at least had reached Spain.

When arriving at the Canary Islands my instruments were nowhere to be found to my monumental frustration and anger. Not because the instruments are irreplaceable in any way, they are not when you’re working with astounding people like Caparison, but because I like to play them on concerts… (I don’t have that strong affection for certain instruments that a lot of players do. Don’t know what’s wrong with me). We waited and waited but nothing happened. Finally I realized they didn’t make it and had to go through all the bull with reporting missing goods, which takes forever.

Outside we were picked up by our Las Palmas freak friends Alby J Ramirez and his buddy I always forget the name of. (Sorry, I know I suck). We were driven to the hotel by the guys and later hooked up with brother Chris and Shara. Beside a couple of daily walks, shooting some footage with my ever so stunning HDV camera and picking up food, I pretty much stayed inside my hotel room all the time, working with music, answering e-mails and generally taking care of things freak. Björn, Chris and Shara went on sightseeing with our hosts. Travelling for hours on tiny roads to get a breathtaking mountain view only to encounter the Fog of Doom and zero visibility but still having a great time. They bought excellent red wine and cheese that we feasted upon in Chris and Shara’s hotel room. I think I got a little drunk, but perhaps it was the incredibly potent cheese, I am not sure.

The actual gig was loads of fun. God damn, it was sweaty and overcrowded! There were people basically everywhere, going nuts to our music. Alby and the bunch had busted their butts to find instruments we could use and I struggled a bit with a couple of Ibanez guitars with too low string action (for my taste). Chris got himself a similar music man bass like the ones he’s got at home. Despite the scariness of playing other instruments, which we are eternally grateful for that it could be done, of course, the gig went real fine. I’d say together with London and Copenhagen a few years back, this packed club went down as one of the hottest ever, temperature wise, in the history of Freak Kitchen.

Afterwards a local freak poster was handed out to everyone who wanted it and we signed everything we could for a while, before walking back to the hotel by the beach. We’d like to be back soon again, fine people of the Canary Islands, and we hereby thank you for your lovely support. You rule!

Before departing the following day, we signed a bunch of photos for Alby and friends. I was given a very funny Teletubbie toy that had a truly low-budget techno theme built into it. Figured out that if I pushed a certain button three times in a row the theme would appear. Inspiring! (I think I lost the thing in Russia where I used it live a couple of times). Thank you.

At the airport on the day of departure I got shit-happy to have my guitars back! Something got wrong in Madrid apparently and they made it to Gran Canaria the night before. At least they made it. Chris’ bass is still lost. Someone will have to pay. We’ll figure it out.

Got back Monday evening and re-packed the bags for the departure for the UK the day after. Tight schedule? Nah. One shall not complain when things are busy.

This entry was posted
on Sunday, December 10th, 2006 at 12:28 and is filed under Cooking.
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